Biography
This dark, handsome player of film and TV earned his BA at Princeton, his MA at
Yale and was just a dissertation away from a PhD in English literature when he
left academia for an acting career. This engaging combination of intelligence
and quirkiness has informed Duchovny's best performances. He readily found
acting jobs, first in commercials and then in bit parts in features as a
partygoer in Working Girl (1988) and a womanizer in Henry Jaglom's New Year's
Day (1989). Duchovny next moved to TV for a brief stint as Dennis/Denise Bryson,
a transvestite FBI agent, on Twin Peaks.

Duchovny went on to small roles in big Hollywood productions (Beethoven and
Chaplin, both 1992) and major parts in small features (The Rapture 1991 and
Kalifornia 1993). Duchovny achieved cult star status with his often sardonic
portrayal of FBI agent Fox 'Spooky' Mulder on The X-Files (Fox, 1993- ), a smart
and genuinely creepy show about investigations into the paranormal. Duchovny
invested the character with a self-deprecating charm even as he effectively
conveyed his haunted quality. He reprised the role for the feature The X-Files:
Fight the Future (1998). Trading on his small screen success, Duchovny starred
as a disgraced doctor whose life becomes intertwined with a criminal's in the
muddled noir-wannabe Playing God (1997).

When the next hiatus rolled around, there was no break from The X-Files as he
and Anderson paired up for the 1998 feature film, which was hoped would spawn a
movie franchise and ultimately release them from the golden ties of their series
prison. There is of course the fear that audiences will never disassociate him
from the Mulder character, but Duchovny remained hopeful, telling Lawrence
Grobel of Movieline (July 1998): "I just have an abiding belief that talent will
out. If I make it, then I have it; if I don't, then I didn't." His three guest
appearances on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show touted his comic potential, and he
was also able to step out of Mulder's shoes for Bonnie Hunt's romantic comedy
Return to Me (2000), playing a man who falls in love with the woman who received
his late wife's heart.

Awards:
1996: Golden Satellite: Best Actor in a Drama Series, The X-Files
1996: Golden Globe: Best Actor in a TV Series (Drama), The X-Files
1999: American Comedy Award: Funniest Male Guest Appearance in a Television
Series, The Larry Sanders Show
1999: TV Guide Award: Actor in a Drama Series, The X-Files